Clipmarks | Estimate Clips

0.3% of Saharan Sun Enough To Power Europe

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:42:28 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The visionary proposal comes as the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission released its strategic energy technology plan which highlighted photovoltaic cells as one of the eight technologies that need to be developed in the future. The plan also includes fuel cells, hydrogen, clean coal, second generation biofuels, nuclear fusion, wind and smart grids.

Clip Source: www.environmentalgraffiti.com

The major obstacle to using renewable energy has always been the inability to produce a constant supply of electricity to consumers.

However, scientists now believe that they have found a way to solve the supply and demand problem.

Arnulf Jaeger-Waldau of the European Commission’s Institute for Energy, speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona (ESOF), believes that the creation of solar farms in the Sahara desert could produce enough energy to meet all of Europe’s energy needs.

Power could be generated either through photovoltaic cells or by using the sun’s heat to boil water and power turbines.

The argument for solar farms in the Sahara is solid in that photovoltaic panels there could potentially generate three times more energy than panels in northern Europe.

It is estimated that capturing 0.3% of the sunlight falling on the desert would meet all of Europe’s needs.

around €450bn would be needed and scientists estimate that it would take until 2050

Tags: energy, economy, europe, solar energy

String Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:18:29 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Dreams of interstellar travel may need to be put on hold for the moment, however. Cleaver and Obousy estimate that the amount of energy needed to influence the extra dimension is equivalent to the entire mass of Jupiter being converted into pure energy for a ship measuring roughly 10 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters. "That is an enormous amount of energy," Cleaver said. "We are still a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that type of energy."

But what if we could make ourselves very very small??? I am ready to squeeze myself quite a bit to get really far...

Clip Source: www.scienceagogo.com

Physicists Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy, of Baylor University, believe they have come up with a new method for a spaceship to travel faster than the speed of light without breaking the laws of physics.

They theorize that by manipulating the extra spatial dimensions of string theory around a spaceship with an extremely large amount of energy, it would create a "bubble" that could cause the ship to travel faster than the speed of light.

The Baylor physicists believe that manipulating the 10th spatial dimension postulated in string theory would alter the dark energy in three large spatial dimensions: height, width and length.

The new method is based on the Alcubierre drive, which proposes expanding the fabric of space behind a ship and shrinking space-time in front of the ship.

The ship would not actually move, rather the ship would sit in a bubble between the expanding and shrinking space-time dimensions.

Tags: physics, string theory, faster than light drive

Kites could provide electricity for 100,000 homes

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:53:25 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Several other scientists are investigating the use of kites to harness energy from the wind - which some researchers estimate provides more than 100 times the amount required to power the entire planet. In 2007, Google´s philanthropic arm invested about $10 million in a US kite company called Makani. An Italian company called Kitegen has a multi-kite scheme that could generate a gigawatt of power, as much as a standard coal plant.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

High-flying kites tethered to generators could supply as much as 100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 100,000 homes, according to researchers from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

The scientists have recently demonstrated that flying a single 10-square-meter kite could produce 10 kilowatts of power, which could supply electricity for about 10 homes.

In their next experiment, the researchers plan to test a 50-kilowatt version, called Laddermill. Eventually, their goal is to build a multi-kite system that could generate a full 100 megawatts.

Electricity produced by kites in the wind could be inexpensive, too. The researchers predict prices to be comparable with generating electricity using coal power, and half that of using wind turbines.

kites generate power by pulling on their strings that are attached to generators on the ground. After reaching their maximum height, the kites are reeled back down to repeat the process.

Tags: energy, clean energy, wind, kites

Scientists alarmed by ocean dead-zone growth

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:09:33 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: OH, our precious oceans. We have really screwed up now.

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

(08-14) 18:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Dead zones where fish and most marine life can no longer survive are spreading across the continental shelves of the world's oceans at an alarming rate as oxygen vanishes from coastal waters, scientists reported Thursday.

The scientists place the problem on runoff of chemical fertilizers in rivers and fallout from burning fossil fuels, and they estimate there are now more than 400 dead zones along 95,000 square miles of the seas - an area more than half the size of California.

The number of those areas has nearly doubled every decade since the 1960s, said Robert J. Diaz, a biological oceanographer at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

"Dead zones were once rare, but now they're commonplace, and there are more of them in more places," he said.

Debunking 'Truths' About Offshore Drilling

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:55:35 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: No, the United States cannot drill its way to energy independence. But with the roaring economies of China and India gobbling up oil in the two countries' latter-day industrial revolutions, the United States can no longer afford to turn its back on finding all the sources of fuel necessary to maintain its economy and its standard of living. What's required is a long-term, comprehensive plan that includes wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels and nuclear -- and that acknowledges that oil and gas will be instrumental to the U.S. economy for many years to come.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

According to the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS), while there are an estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in the off-limits portions of the OCS, those estimates were made using old data from now-outdated seismic equipment.

In the case of the Atlantic Ocean, the data were collected before Congress imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling in 1981. In 1987, the MMS estimated that there were 9 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. By 2006, after major advances in seismic technology and deepwater drilling techniques, the MMS resource estimate for that area had ballooned to 45 billion barrels.

According to the MMS, between 1993 and 2007, there were 651 spills of all sizes at OCS facilities (in federal waters three miles or more offshore) that released 47,800 barrels of oil. With 7.5 billion barrels of oil produced in that time, that equates to 1 barrel of oil spilled per 156,900 barrels produced.

That's not to minimize the danger. But no form of energy is perfect

Tags: offshore drilling, atlantic ocean, gulf of mexico

Five revolutionary minds

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:19:13 GMT

clipped by: sylviadafox

Clip Source: revminds.seedmagazine.com

Fernando Esponda

"What caught my eye was that the information being used by the immune system was a negative kind of information," he says. That is, the immune system doesn't have a record of every possible pathogen that could invade the body. Instead, it learns what the body itself looks like and knows to go on the offensive when it encounters anything that doesn't match its definition of "self." "Can we do the same thing with data?"

Reverse surveys reveal only a little about each subject but a lot about a population, and they can accurately estimate how common a behavior is without anyone having to admit to it.

Clip Source: revminds.seedmagazine.com

The mainstream approach to cognition holds that it happens in the mind and that material culture is nothing more than an outgrowth of our mental capacities. Archaeologist Lambros Malafouris is challenging this deep-seated idea

the hypothesis of extended mind, which posits that material culture is not a reflection of the human mind but an actual part of it.

Clip Source: revminds.seedmagazine.com

Aleksandra Walczak

Tags: ideas, science

Humpback whales make a comeback

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:25:28 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Humpback whales are making a comeback more than 40 years after a ban on commercial hunting was brought in to save them from extinction.

Marine biologists estimate that the number of humpbacks worldwide may have grown to more than 40,000 adults and about 15,000 juveniles, following the ban that began in the 1960s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has revised its classification of the whales as "vulnerable" to "of least concern" on its latest annual list of endangered animals.

The southern right whale population has also begun to recover - the number of these is believed to have doubled from 7,500 in 1997.

The success of these two species, however, contrasts with a worsening trend for other cetaceans, including whales, dolphins, sharks and porpoises, of which 10% are classified as endangered or critically endangered. Furthermore, the picture is unclear for more than half of the world's 44 cetacean species, because too little is known about their populations.

It's Good to be a Corporation in US!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:56:04 GMT

clipped by: sahara
clipper's remarks: More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said. Combined, the companies had $2.5 trillion in sales. About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.

The GAO said it analyzed data from the Internal Revenue Service, examining samples of corporate returns for the years 1998 through 2005. For 2005, for example, it reviewed 110,003 tax returns from among more than 1.2 million corporations doing business in the U.S. Dorgan and Levin have complained about companies abusing transfer prices -- amounts charged on transactions between companies in a group, such as a parent and subsidiary. In some cases, multinational companies can manipulate transfer prices to shift income from higher to lower tax jurisdictions, cutting their tax liabilities.

Clip Source: biz.yahoo.com

Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich

An outside tax expert, Chris Edwards of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said increasing numbers of limited liability corporations and so-called "S" corporations pay taxes under individual tax codes

"Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code," Edwards said

The GAO study did not investigate why

Most companies in U.S. avoid federal income taxes, study finds

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:34:25 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: www.mlive.com

Most companies in U.S. avoid federal income taxes, study finds

by Jennifer C. Kerr | The Associated Press
Tuesday August 12, 2008, 6:40 AM

WASHINGTON — Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Carl Levin commissioned a study that found most U.S. corporations paid no income taxes between 1998 and 2005.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

More than 38,000 foreign corporations had no tax liability in 2005 and 1.2 million U.S. companies paid no income tax, the GAO said.

Tags: business

Lack of Corporate taxes, New Orleans Non-profit corruption

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:42:33 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Trillions of untaxed income....wait, what?

Clip Source: www.freep.com

Most U.S. corporations and foreign companies doing business in the United States pay no federal income tax, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released today, said two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 to 2005 and about 68% of foreign companies doing business in the United States avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to the GAO's estimate.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

NEW ORLEANS: FBI raids office hired in Katrina cleanup

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents went to offices of the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. on Monday, the FBI said.

There's Dollars Under The Melting Ice Cap

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:09:55 GMT

clipped by: DanaGarrett
clipper's remarks: Wouldn't you know it. Now it might be doubly profitable for Big Oil to ramp up global warming. Beneath those melting ice caps are vast fields of black gold and the rush is on to claim them.

So take heart. There might be oil to run the boats our grandchildren will need to live in a warming, flooding world.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

It’s a scramble for the spoils of global warming as the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice is opening access to previously unreachable deposits of oil and gas, setting off a race by northern nations - including the United States, Canada and Russia - to claim them.

The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed last month what the oil industry had long suspected when the agency released an estimate that the area north of the Arctic Circle may hold as much as 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or roughly 13 percent of the world’s total undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas.

The dash to stake out territory across the Arctic has accelerated since Russia sent one of its submarines last August to plant the country’s flag on the sea floor beneath the North Pole, provoking an outcry by other nations that viewed it as an unauthorized land grab.

Corporate Tax Dodging

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:07:10 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: Here's where the IRS might want to focus its efforts.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.

"It's shameful that so many corporations make big profits and pay nothing to support our country," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who asked for the GAO study with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Tags: irs, tax, corporate, gao

Half of overweight US adults are heart-healthy

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:36:58 GMT

clipped by: Lexica
clipper's remarks: We have this idea that fat=unhealthy, unhealthy=fat, thin=healthy, and healthy=thin. However, more and more research seems to indicate that this simply isn't true.

It's not about your size or your shape, it's about your fitness. Can you do what you need to do on a daily basis with ease? Can you climb a flight of stairs or run a block for the bus without getting winded? Can you play tag with a couple of six-year-olds without passing out from overexertion? Can you carry your groceries home without needing to set them down several times?

Get fit. Get strong. Get active.

And tell anyone who still believes in "shaming the fatties into losing weight" to go jump in a lake.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.

The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading, and that even "less voluptuous" people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.

about 51 percent of overweight adults

had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar

Almost one-third of obese adults

also were in this healthy range

Yet about a fourth of adults in the recommended-weight range had unhealthy levels of at least two of these measures.

Tags: health, fitness, fat, research

Seaweed gel saving lives

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:50:47 GMT

clipped by: valann 47

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A gel made from seaweed could save the lives of thousands of people who suffer major heart attacks.

The substance is injected in liquid form into the area of the heart where the tissue has been damaged by an attack.

The gel then solidifies, allowing a thick layer of scar tissue to grow. This helps the heart to continue working normally.

Under usual circumstances, the layer of scar tissue is thinner than normal tissue, which weakens the heart.

As a result it must work harder to pump blood around the body, which can lead to future heart attacks or heart failure.

At present there is no way of repairing heart muscle after an attack.

British doctors estimate that as many as 20,000 lives a year could be saved by using the gel in the most severe cases.

The gel, which is made from ordinary brown seaweed, is injected into the heart using a catheter fed through a vein in the groin.

Brown seaweed: Could save thousands from suffering heart attacks

Tags: seaweed, heart attacks, heart muscle

We Are All Getting To Be That Someone

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:08:32 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

According to one estimate, there will be five billion people using mobile phones by 2011, which means that, for some part of each day, most of our species will be reduced to wandering aimlessly.

But smart phones are changing everything. They are not meant to be held to the ear, for the simple reason that they are barely phones at all.

Watching the passers-by holding their smart phones in front of them as they walked was like watching a parade of monks with heads bowed over their breviaries.

Were they Twittering? Following their G.P.S.? Checking their stocks? Reading their e-mail? Texting a friend?

It makes no difference

I remember how strange it used to seem just to see someone reading a paperback or a folded newspaper while walking down the street. Now we are all getting to be that someone.

Clipmarks | Estimate Clips

0.3% of Saharan Sun Enough To Power Europe

String Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed

Kites could provide electricity for 100,000 homes

Scientists alarmed by ocean dead-zone growth

Debunking 'Truths' About Offshore Drilling

Five revolutionary minds

Humpback whales make a comeback

It's Good to be a Corporation in US!

Most companies in U.S. avoid federal income taxes, study finds

Most companies in U.S. avoid federal income taxes, study finds

by Jennifer C. Kerr | The Associated Press Tuesday August 12, 2008, 6:40 AM

Lack of Corporate taxes, New Orleans Non-profit corruption

NEW ORLEANS: FBI raids office hired in Katrina cleanup

There's Dollars Under The Melting Ice Cap

Corporate Tax Dodging

Half of overweight US adults are heart-healthy

Seaweed gel saving lives

We Are All Getting To Be That Someone

by Jennifer C. Kerr | The Associated Press
Tuesday August 12, 2008, 6:40 AM